Every global hiring journey starts with the exact same first step: creating your account. It sounds trivial, but getting your initial setup right — your company profile, your team permissions, your verification documents — saves you significant friction down the road when you're trying to move fast on an actual hire. This guide walks through exactly how to set up your first Deel account properly, from the moment you land on the signup page to having a fully functional workspace ready for your first international hire.
Before You Start: What You'll Need
Having the right information ready before you begin makes the entire setup process faster and smoother.
- Your company's legal name and registered business address
- Your company registration or incorporation documents (specific requirements vary by jurisdiction)
- A business email address for your primary account
- Basic information about your business structure and the countries you plan to hire in
- Payment method details for platform fees (this can typically be added slightly later in the process)
- A general sense of your hiring plans — how many people, in which countries, and as employees or contractors — since this affects which Deel products you'll set up first
Having this ready in advance means you can move through setup in one sitting rather than getting stuck mid-process looking for documents.
👉 Begin setting up your Deel account here.
Step 1: Choose Your Starting Point
Deel's signup flow typically asks you to clarify your primary intent right away, since this shapes the initial setup experience.
- Hiring internationally for the first time — you'll likely be guided toward exploring EOR and contractor options
- Managing an existing international team — you may be directed toward Global Payroll or HR setup
- Just exploring HR tools for your team — the free Deel HR tier may be your natural starting point
Selecting the option that matches your actual situation ensures the platform surfaces the most relevant next steps and doesn't overwhelm you with irrelevant features.
Step 2: Create Your Account Credentials
The basic account creation step is straightforward and similar to most modern SaaS platforms.
- Enter your business email address (using a company domain email is generally recommended over a personal email for the primary account)
- Create a secure password, following standard best practices — a unique password not reused from other platforms, ideally managed through a password manager
- Verify your email address through the confirmation link sent to your inbox
- Consider enabling two-factor authentication immediately, given that this account will eventually have access to sensitive payroll and employee data
Step 3: Enter Your Company Information
Once your basic account is verified, you'll be prompted to provide details about your company.
- Legal company name — this should match your official registration documents exactly
- Business address — your registered headquarters address
- Industry and company size — this helps Deel tailor recommendations and may affect available features or pricing tiers
- Country of incorporation — the jurisdiction where your company is legally registered, which is distinct from where you might be hiring employees
Accuracy here matters because this information often feeds into contract generation and compliance documentation later in your usage of the platform.
Step 4: Complete Business Verification
This is one of the more important steps, and skipping or rushing it can cause delays later when you actually try to hire someone or process payments. Business verification (often referred to as a KYB, or "Know Your Business," process) is standard across financial platforms handling international payments and is required by financial regulations.
- Upload your business registration or incorporation certificate
- Provide proof of business address if requested (this can sometimes be a utility bill or bank statement showing the registered address)
- Submit identification documents for key company representatives or beneficial owners, as required by the verification process
- Respond promptly to any follow-up requests for additional documentation, since these reviews are typically conducted by compliance teams who may need clarification
Verification timelines vary depending on your jurisdiction and the completeness of your initial submission, so submitting clear, complete documentation upfront is the best way to minimize delays.
Step 5: Set Up Your Team and Permissions
Most companies aren't running global hiring as a one-person operation, so setting up appropriate team access early prevents bottlenecks later.
- Invite relevant colleagues — typically HR, finance, and hiring managers who will need platform access
- Assign appropriate permission levels — full administrative access for HR/finance leadership, more limited access for hiring managers who only need visibility into their own team's hiring activity
- Establish clear internal processes for who approves what — for example, who has authority to approve payroll runs or sign off on new contracts
Getting this structure right early avoids the common problem of either too many people having excessive access (a security risk) or too few people having necessary access (a bottleneck risk).
Step 6: Connect Your Payment Method
To actually process platform fees, payroll funding, or contractor payments, you'll need to connect a payment method to your account.
- Add your company's bank account details or preferred payment method
- Review the currency options available for funding payroll runs and platform fees
- Understand the typical processing timelines for fund transfers, since this affects how far in advance you need to initiate payroll runs to ensure employees and contractors are paid on time
Step 7: Explore the Dashboard and Familiarize Yourself with Navigation
Before diving into your first actual hire, spend some time simply exploring the platform's structure so you understand where everything lives.
- Review the main navigation to understand how EOR, Contractor Management, Payroll, and HR sections are organized
- Look at the reporting and analytics sections to understand what visibility you'll have into costs and headcount as you scale
- Check out any onboarding checklists or guided tours the platform offers, since these are specifically designed to orient new users efficiently
Step 8: Set Up Your First Country Profile
If you already know which country you'll be hiring in first, it's worth setting this up even before you have a specific candidate, since this lets you review compliance information and cost estimates in advance.
- Select your target country within the relevant product (EOR, Contractor, or Payroll)
- Review the compliance summary, including standard employment terms and statutory benefits requirements
- Use any available cost calculator tools to estimate the total cost of hiring in that country before you need to make a real-time decision under time pressure
Common Setup Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake 1: Rushing through business verification with incomplete documents
- This is the single most common cause of setup delays — submit complete, clear documentation the first time to avoid back-and-forth that can add days to your timeline
Mistake 2: Using a personal email for the primary account
- This creates ownership and continuity risks if that individual leaves the company — use a company domain email and consider setting up role-based access from the start
Mistake 3: Not setting up team permissions before you actually need multiple people involved
- Waiting until you're mid-hire to figure out who should have access creates unnecessary friction during a time-sensitive process
Mistake 4: Skipping the exploration phase and jumping straight into a real hire
- A few minutes spent understanding the platform's structure before you're under deadline pressure makes your actual first hire significantly smoother
What Happens After Setup Is Complete
Once your account is fully set up and verified, you're ready to move into actual hiring activity:
- Generate your first employment contract or contractor agreement
- Send offers to candidates and manage their onboarding through the platform
- Begin processing payroll or contractor payments according to your agreed schedule
- Expand your team setup as your international hiring activity grows
Why a Careful Initial Setup Pays Off Later
It might be tempting to rush through account setup just to get to the "real" work of hiring. But the companies that invest a bit more care upfront — accurate company information, complete verification documents, thoughtful team permissions — consistently report smoother, faster experiences when they actually need to move quickly on a hiring decision later.
- Verification delays are far more painful when you're trying to hire someone who has a specific start date in mind
- Proper team permissions prevent bottlenecks when key decision-makers are unavailable
- A well-understood platform structure means less time fumbling through navigation when you're working against a deadline
Your global hiring infrastructure is only as strong as the foundation you set up before you actually need it. Taking the time to do this properly now means that when the perfect candidate appears, you'll be ready to move immediately.
Set up your Deel account today and build the foundation for fast, compliant global hiring.